A smart city is really about the application of data, the acquisition of data and how do we apply the data analytics to make better decisions. For me and the way I look at how we gauge smart cities, it’s about making better decisions with better data. In many cases, automating decisions that can be automated frees us up to …

From Jenny Chase, to Zach Shahan on Clean Technica, Feb 2018 Jenny just sent this update: “We have pegged the typical factory-gate module price at the end of 2017 at about 33 cents per W, meaning a price around 37 cents per W in most markets. About 98GW was installed in 2017. Over the past two years we have revised …

Excerpt from an article by Roger McNamee, Washington Monthly, Feb 2018 The scope of the problem requires a multi-pronged approach. First, we must address the resistance to facts created by filter bubbles. Polls suggest that about a third of Americans believe that Russian interference is fake news, despite unanimous agreement to the contrary by the country’s intelligence agencies. Helping those people …

Gabriel Weinberg, CEO and founder of DuckDuckGo 31 Jan 2018 Getty Images / David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, and Google CEO Larry Page To make any real progress in advancing data privacy this year, we have to start doing something about Google and Facebook. Not doing so would be like trying to lose weight without changing …

Excerpt from Utility Dive, Jan 2018. See link for full article. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards body will finalize the specifics of 5G networks in 2018, but already a great deal is known about the technology. 5G networks will offer three types of networking capabilities: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC) and ultra-reliable low latency communications (uRLLC). …

By Michael Kahn Jan 8, 2018, 10:32am EST 59 in Curbed JTesFaye When MARTA began rail service in 1979, technology was of course much different than today. But surprisingly, the original trains the system opened with are still running nearly four decades later. That’s all set to change. Curbed Atlanta According to WABE, MARTA plans to replace its entire rail fleet. The project will bring new, modern …

April 7, 2016, This is note is part of the Connections series. You can download the PDF version of this note through this link. Synchronizing Installation with Other Public Works to Reach Underserved Areas By Arthur Foch The high cost of extending Internet service beyond urban areas and the relatively low number of potential subscribers has combined to stall the expansion of this enabling …

By Richelle Elberg, principal research analyst at Navigant Research. The opinions represented in this piece are independent of Smart Cities Dive’s views. 4 Jan 2018 I once wrote in a Navigant white paper that utilities need to stop building application-specific, siloed networks and think more holistically about their future communications needs. With the proliferation of distributed generation (DG), electric vehicles (EVs) and …

The FCC and Congress have given us both the incentive and the opportunity to build a nationwide democratic Internet governed in the public interest. By David Morris ILSR “Our focus right now and for the foreseeable future must be on promoting democratic broadband networks,” writes Morris, “guided by the needs of their customers and their communities. Which means doubling, tripling, increasing ten …